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Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Vatican
City, 5 June 2013
(VIS) – Pope Francis dedicated the catechesis of today's Wednesday
morning general audience to the environment, noting that today marks
the World Environment Day promoted by the United Nations.

“When
we speak of the environment, of creation, my thoughts go to the first
pages of the Bible, to the Book of Genesis, where it is affirms that
God puts man and woman on earth 'to cultivate and care for it'. And
the question comes to me:” the Pope said to the faithful gathered
in St. Peter's Square, “What does it mean to cultivate and care for
the earth? Are we truly cultivating and caring for creation? Or are
we exploiting and neglecting it?”

“Cultivating
and caring for creation,” explained the Holy Father, “is God's
indication, given not only at the beginning of history, but to each
one of us. It is part of his plan. It means responsibly making the
world grow, transforming it so that it becomes a garden, a place that
all can inhabit.”

“Benedict
XVI recalled many times that this tasked entrusted to us by God the
Creator requires that we understand the rhythm and logic of creation.
Instead, we are often guided by the arrogance of dominating,
possessing, manipulating, and exploiting. We don't 'take care' of it;
we don't respect it; we don't consider it as a freely-given gift to
be cared for. We are losing the attitude of wonder, of contemplation,
of listening to creation. Thus we are no longer able to read in it
what Benedict XVI called 'the rhythm of the story of God's love for
humanity'. Why is this happening? Because are we thinking and living
'horizontally'; we are drawing away from God; we are not reading his
signs.”

“But
cultivating and caring for doesn't just refer to our relationship
with the environment, the relationship between humanity and creation.
It also concern human relationships. … We are living a moment of
crisis. We see it in the environment but above all we see it in
humanity. The human person is in danger. ... This is the urgency of
human ecology! The danger is serious because the root of the problem
is profound, not superficial. It isn't just a question of economics
but of ethics and anthropology. … The dynamics of an economy and
finance that lack ethics are dominating.”

Speaking
off the cuff, the pontiff added: “What is in charge today isn't the
human person but money. Money is in command. And God our Father has
given us the task of caring for the earth not for the money, but for
us: for men and women. This is our charge. Instead, men and women are
sacrificed to the idols of profit and consumption. It is a 'culture
of waste'.“

“If,
for example, on a winter's night,” he continued, “a person dies
here in [nearby] Via Ottaviano, that's not news. If in so many parts
of the world there are children who have nothing to eat, that's not
news. It seems normal. It must not be this way! And yet these things
come to be normal … On the other hand, a drop of ten points on the
stock exchange constitutes a tragedy. If someone dies that isn't news
but a ten point drop in the markets is a tragedy! Thus people are
discarded, as if they were garbage.”

“Human
life, the person, is no longer felt to be the primary value to
respect and care for … This culture of waste has also made us
insensitive to a squandering and wastefulness of food … Consumerism
has caused us to get used to the daily excess and waste of food,
which we are no longer capable of seeing for its true worth, which
goes well beyond mere economic parameters. Remember, however, that
the food that is thrown away is as if we had stolen it from the table
of the poor, from those who are hungry!”

“I
invite you all to reflect on the problem of the loss and the waste of
food … Let us all make the serious commitment to respect and care
for creation, to be attentive to every person, to oppose the culture
of wastefulness and waste, and to promote a culture of solidarity and
encounter.”

Vatican
City, 5 June 2013
(VIS) – After his catechesis, greeting the faithful from the
different language groups, the Pope welcomed the French-speaking
pilgrims from the Antilles, Mauritius, and the Ivory Coast. He took
advantage of the opportunity to note the presence of a group of imams
from France who are engaged in interreligious dialogue. He also
invited all, as he had already urged during the catechesis, to care
for creation and for the human person.

He
also greeted the seminarians and newly ordained priests from Poland,
urging them to thank Christ for the gift of their vocation and to
cultivate it “in the light and strength of the Holy Spirit, so that
you will always be zealous ministers of God's grace and true guides
of the paths of holiness.” He then invited all the Polish people to
give thanks to God for their priests and to “support them with your
prayers, benevolence, and good counsel.”

Vatican
City, 5 June 2013
(VIS) – This morning, shortly after 9:00am, in the sitting room of
the Domus Sanctae Marthae, the Pope received participants in the
coordination meeting between the Catholic charitable organizations
that are acting in the situation of the crisis in Syria and its
neighbouring countries. The meeting was sponsored by the Pontifical
Council “Cor Unum”, whose president is Cardinal Robert Sarah.

“I
would like to thank you for coming together,” said the Pope, “and
for all the humanitarian work that you are doing to aid the suffering
peoples of Syria and nearby countries owing to the conflict there. I
encouraged the Pontifical Council Cor Unum to promote this meeting
designed to coordinate the activities carried out by Catholic
charitable organizations in the region. I wish to express my
gratitude to Cardinal Sarah for his greetings. I offer a special
welcome to those who have come from the Middle East, especially those
representing the Church in Syria.”

“The
Holy See’s concern for the crisis in Syria, and in a particular
way, for the people, often defenceless, who are suffering as a result
of it, is well known. Benedict XVI repeatedly called for a ceasefire
and for a search for a resolution through dialogue in order to
achieve a profound reconciliation between the sides. Let the weapons
be silent! Furthermore, he wished to express his personal closeness
this past November, when he sent Cardinal Sarah into the region,
accompanying this gesture with the request to 'spare no effort in the
search for peace' and manifesting his concrete and fatherly
solicitude with a donation, to which the Synod Fathers had also
contributed in October.

“The
destiny of the Syrian people,” he repeated, “is a concern that is
also close to my heart. On Easter Sunday I asked for peace 'above all
for dear Syria, for its people torn by conflict, and for the many
refugees who await help and comfort. How much blood has been shed!
And how much suffering must there be before a political solution to
the crisis is found?'”

“In
the face of ongoing and overwhelming violence, I strongly renew my
appeal for peace. In recent weeks the international community has
reaffirmed its intention to promote concrete initiatives to bring
about a fruitful dialogue designed to bring an end to the war. These
initiatives are to be encouraged, and it is hoped that they will lead
to peace. The Church feels herself called to give her humble yet
concrete and sincere witness to the charity which she has learned
from Christ, the Good Samaritan. We know that where there is
suffering, Christ is present. We cannot pull back, precisely from
those situations where the suffering is greatest. Your presence at
this coordinating meeting demonstrates your will to faithfully
continue this precious work of humanitarian assistance, in Syria and
in neighbouring countries which generously receive those who have
fled from the war. May your timely and coordinated work be an
expression of the communion to which it gives witness, as the recent
Synod on the Church in the Middle East suggested.”

“To
the international community, besides the pursuit of a negotiated
solution to the conflict, I ask for the provision of humanitarian aid
for the Syrians who have been displaced and made refugees, showing in
the first place the good of each human person and safeguarding their
dignity. For the Holy See, the work of various Catholic charitable
agencies is extremely significant: assisting the Syrian population,
without regard for ethnic or religious affiliation, is the most
direct way to contribute to peace and to the construction of a
society open and welcoming to all of its different constituent parts.
The Holy See also lends its efforts to the building of a future of
peace for a Syria in which everyone can live freely and express
themselves in their own particular way.”

The
Pope also directed his thoughts at the moment “to the Christian
communities who live in Syria and throughout the Middle East. The
Church supports the members of these communities who today find
themselves in special difficulty. These have the great task of
continuing to offer a Christian presence in the place where they were
born. And it is our task to ensure that this witness remain there.
The participation of the entire Christian community to this important
work of assistance and aid is imperative at this time. Let us all,
each of us, think of Syria. There is so much suffering and poverty,
so much pain of Jesus who suffers, who is poor, who is forced out of
his homeland. It is Jesus! This is a mystery but it is our Christian
mystery. In the beloved Syrians we see Jesus suffering.”

“I
offer my gratitude once again,” he concluded, “for this
initiative and I invoke upon each one of you abundant divine
blessings. This heavenly benediction extends in a particular way to
the beloved faithful who live in Syria and to all Syrians who have
been forced to leave their homes because of the war. May all of you
here present tell the beloved people of Syria and the Middle East
that the Pope accompanies them and is near to them. The Church will
not abandon them!”

Vatican
City, 5 June 2013
(VIS) – The Holy Father sent a telegram of condolence to
Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, archbishop of Cracow, Poland, on
receiving news of the death there this morning of Cardinal Stanislaw
Kazimierz Nagy, S.C.I., cardinal-deacon of Santa Maria della Scala.
Cardinal Nagy was 91 years old.

“On
hearing the news of the death of the venerable Cardinal Stanislaw
Nagy, I wish to express to you, to the entire diocesan community, to
the family members of the worthy prelate, and to the Congregation of
Dehonian Fathers my heartfelt participation in their sorrow,
affectionately thinking of this dear brother who generously served
the Gospel and the Church, especially in the academic world, which
appreciated this studious and experienced theology teacher. I recall
with gratitude his fruitful collaboration, warm friendship, and
mutually shared esteem with Blessed John Paul II, as well as his
intense ecumenical activity. I pray earnestly that the Lord, through
the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, welcome this faithful
servant and eminent man of the Church to eternal peace and joy and I
wholeheartedly impart to all who mourn his loss the comfort of the
Apostolic Blessing.”